


here to stay

by sweetgoodgraciousangel



Category: Ni no Kuni
Genre: Adorable, another family fic, its all really just adorable tbh asdfghkjlsnflkaf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 14:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14334120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetgoodgraciousangel/pseuds/sweetgoodgraciousangel
Summary: Some moments between Evan and his found family.





	here to stay

Evan curled in on himself a little more, head down on top of his knees, ears folded flat against his hair as his tail swished back and forth in discontent. Roland’s expression dropped, favoring something a whole lot more sympathetic as he came closer to Evan and placed a hand on his shoulder. Evan didn’t look up at him, didn’t meet his eyes, but Roland didn’t need to see his face to know there were tears rolling down his cheeks, and the slight tremble of his limbs was evident even from a distance. Evan hiccuped, trying to drive his tears away so he could look brave once he had the courage to face him, but Roland shook his head.

“It’s okay to cry,” Roland said, and Evan knew it, but still despised the fact he could let himself come to be like this. It didn’t help that Roland’s voice was calm and soothing, and…

It reminded Evan _ so much _ of his father, and he could have almost mistaken him for the late man.

“I don’t… want anyone to be disappointed in me.” Evan sobbed out, his voice muffled.

Roland couldn’t even get a word out before he continued. It almost broke his heart to hear how upset the boy was.

“I’m just  _ scared _ .”

And it reminded Roland so much of his own son. He had his instincts and knew exactly what to do, and they overtook him and he didn’t bother to fight it off. Without hesitation, Roland tightly embraced Evan, who finally lifted his head and cried quietly into his shoulder. Roland offered silent reassurance, wanting to give him all the time in the world he’d need until he felt better.

It was silent, but when Evan finally pulled himself away, he didn’t try to hide himself in a little ball like he had before. He instead wiped his eyes with the back of his hands, then straightened out his ears and let his breathing even out. He had calmed down, seemingly a bit more exhausted than anything after that. 

Roland had been a little suspicious of his behavior when he refused to eat dinner and sulked off to his room alone. Everyone had commented on it and said that he might need time alone today to let him sort some feelings out, but Roland at least felt the need to be sure he was  _ okay  _ before letting that happen. He finished his own meal, though quicker than everyone else and excused himself from the table.

And upon walking in the room, he was right; Evan was crying and shaking on his bed, afraid to look up and face who had come in.

He was plagued by bad thoughts again, about the idea he was lacking in being sufficient enough to rule this kingdom. He was afraid that he was failing his parents and Aranella. Roland let him rant about it, offered advice when he could, and of course cry as he needed. There was not a chance he was just going to let him go through it all alone. Hell,  _ none  _ of them that were by his side and even his citizens would let him do that. They were all there for him, and so with that, Roland spoke softly.

“You’re  _ not  _ disappointing anyone. You never will. You have too much fire in your soul to do that.”

Evan met his eyes finally, and though they were red and puffy, Roland could tell those words meant something to him. He glanced away, took a deep, shaky breath to calm himself the rest the way down. Sometimes he was frustrated that somethings in the kingdom weren’t going right, but Roland would always be there to reassure him that things take time and it’s okay to have small set-backs every now and then. It certainly did not make him a bad king by any means.

“Thank you, Roland… I’m sorry you’ve seen me like this a couple of times.” Evan said, his voice quiet.

With that, Roland slowly stood up and patted the young king on the back once more, offering a kind smile.

“That’s nothing to apologize for. Now come along, Your Majesty. Go eat some dinner so you’re not hungry in the middle of the night.”

Evan smiled, sincere and happy, and then nodded. Roland wouldn’t mention what he’d seen and Evan, if he felt comfortable with it, might admit to having been upset but it sincerely lifted Roland’s mood to see the king better than when he first had come into the room.

Evan swung his feet over the edge of the bed and hopped down onto the ground, following Roland out of the door and into the big main hall where only his room and some side rooms rested. 

Roland wasn’t  _ exactly  _ expecting to adopt a second son when he first woke up here, but life was always full of surprises, he supposed.

 

**xxx**

 

“Evan!”

Evan nearly jumped and stumbled when the loud voice shouted his name, and unsuspecting arms were thrown around his shoulders, causing him to fall back into someone’s embrace and he quickly turned his head to see who in the  _ world  _ had startled him. His tired mind couldn’t search itself to recognize the voice, and instead he ended up looking more inscrutable than quizzical. 

After seeing a bright smile and familiar eyes, he relaxed and sighed happily. He should have known who it was immediately, but his thoughts were still foggy from sleep.

“O-Oh, good morning, Tani!” Evan said, just as she slipped away from him and came around to face him from the front. She seemed as lively as ever (as she always is no matter the time of day), with an eager glint in her eyes as she laughed, abrasive and wide awake for the early hours. The sky pirates all kind of did that, he noticed. Perhaps they were the more  _ early bird gets the worm _ kind of lot, up as soon as the sun broke over the horizon.

“You look  _ positively  _ charming right now, with your hair sticking up like that.” She commented, giggling as she put her hands on her hips and watched as Evan blushed and scrambled to rectify that, despite the fact her sarcasm was leaking through. He quickly flattened his hair down where it was standing up in odd places and made sure the fur on his ears at least seemed  _ decent _ . Truly, she had caught him just as he’d woken up not that long ago, so he knew he must have looked a little bit like a mess. He hadn’t even really gotten dressed yet.

Even after his efforts, just to tease him that much more, she reached out and mussed up his hair once more. He gasped just as she turned and ran further into the palace, toward the kitchen where food was certainly already done and ready, laughing all the way there. He pouted in her general direction, but then ceased to be so childish. It was a quick fix, and seconds later he felt a smile making its way back onto his face.

She just carried positively so easily with her, and she never failed to bring a little light into any bad situation. 

Evan began to follow the same way she did, hungry for breakfast.   
  


**xxx  
  
**

Evan just narrowly missed the swing of the brutal monsters ax when it tried to come down upon him when he was too busy trying to search for a specific sword in his arms band, but a sturdy hand had flown out of nowhere and effectively shoved him to the ground. Albeit it knocked the breath out of him when he made impact and his wrists popped and ached slightly when he tried to catch himself to soften the blow, he would have rather dealt with  _ that  _ than deal with the large wound an ax would have inflicted upon him. He began to scramble backward, away from the monster, and saw the person whom he certainly owed his gratitude to when this was done and over with.

“Are ya alright, Yer Majesty?!”

Batu had his own ax held high up in the air, taking a ruthless slash at the monster, effectively making the creature regret ever starting a fight. It fell to the ground and disappeared slowly, leaving the rest of them to rush forward toward the both of them. Tani helped him to his feet and Roland made sure he wasn’t hurt. His heart was pounding slightly from the rush, but he was okay, and very grateful for that fact. 

After insisting he was fine, Evan then met Batu’s eyes.

“Gosh… thank you, Batu. I was caught off guard there for a moment…”

Batu laughed, loud and proud. Evan almost swore he could have heard it echo. 

“‘Twas but a small feat. Don’t ya lose sleep over it! Just keep yer eyes peeled the next time we’re runnin’ into fight.”

“And don’t forget to prepare ahead of time,” Tani threw in. Roland hummed his agreement with his arms crossed.

Evan had no ability to respond, so he nodded, then quickly put his sword away in his arms band (at least he found it in the end, so he should be prepared for the future).

Evan knew it before, but Batu really was  _ serious  _ about his loyalty to Evan, and something about that made him just a little bit more confident that he might actually be doing this whole king and kingdom thing  _ right _ .   
  


**xxx  
  
**

There was a cup of freshly brewed hot coffee sitting right next to the neatly piled books on the table, candles that lit the area well enough to be able to see the context the pages held, and Evan was sitting on the edge of his chair with his eyes focused on Leander, who flipped to the next somewhat yellowed page of the book the both of them were currently discussing.

Leander pointed to a diagram, and Evan’s flicked his gaze down to it with curiosity.

“...And like it shows here, the higgledies form just after that.” He finished, then briefly met Evan’s eyes to see his reaction. Evan nodded, amazed, enthusiasm leaking into his tone as he leaned forward to examine the words and pictures a bit closer. It showed a step-by-step process that Auntie Martha apparently followed when she makes her higgledies, and all the information listed on the side explained the process and even held a few recipes he was definitely going to try and collect ingredients for. 

With that lesson coming to an end, it made Evan smile wide, then look back up at Leander. 

“Whoa… so they really  _ are  _ kind of phenomena! When Auntie Martha said that I thought she just meant it might be a little hard to explain…”

“Mhm.”

Evan sat back in his seat, long having forgotten his proper posture in favor of his thrill for learning.

“And not everyone can see them, right?” Evan asked. At that, Leander shut the book and slid it aside. 

“Correct. There is no real factor yet discovered what determines if a person can see them or not, but there have been times I’ve made remarks about them and others will not understand what I’m talking about. It’s one of the biggest mysteries about them, aside from their origins, of course.”

Leander was just so  _ knowledgeable  _ about a lot of things, and he apparently didn’t mind teaching Evan all about a subject if he had any questions about anything. Out of curiosity, Evan had asked Leander how research was at the higgledy lab with Auntie Martha and he pulled out the book they’d just gotten done going over together a few days prior and extensively shared the knowledge they managed to pull from it. With their combined skills, they’d managed a few more methods of creating a lot more higgledies now, and with that Leander had no problem catching Evan up on everything they’d discovered. On top of that, Evan had been curious about the higgledy-making process up close, to which Leander had no issue explaining either.

“Do you have any other questions?”

Evan shook his head. With that, Leander just barely let a smile come on to his expression. He glanced at the pocket watch laying inches from the coffee cup.

“Ah… you should likely retire to bed. It’s late. I apologize if I kept you awake.”

Evan shook his head. “Don’t apologize! Thank you so much for teaching me all of that. It was really fascinating.”

Leander took a sip of his coffee. Evan wanted to ask why he himself wasn’t going to bed yet, but refrained from it. Leander always did like his reading, Evan noticed, so he slipped off of his chair and pushed it in and began making his way toward the door. At that, Leander called out to him.

“Rest well, Your Majesty.”

“You too, Leander!”

Evan exited out into the hall with a chipper step in his walk. 

Leander was a quiet man, but he was very wise and brave.  
  


**xxx  
  
**

“You’ve almost got it!” 

Evan pulled a little tighter, using all the strength in his arms, until he felt himself slipping on his grip. He took a deep breath, let his fingers rest for just a moment, and then pulled the wrench as hard as he could. It finally ceased to turn, and the bolt was sealed tightly in place. With that, Bracken clapped, and Evan stepped back to look at what work he’d done. Well,  _ some  _ of what he’d done. Bracken…  _ really  _ had most of it already finished up, but Evan was curious, and she had no issues letting him help out, on top of answering any questions he had.

“Hey, you did it!” She said. “It’s all finished now, and it looks great! Those bolts aren’t coming loose for anything!”

Evan handed her the weighty tool and scanned the mechanism. It’s something she devised for the storage of produce that were harvested from the farms, to keep it fresh as it was when it was harvested (save for some built in vaults for things that specifically need time to become ripe), and though it looked complex, a test run of a previous model she built proved that its effectiveness was going to prove to be very beneficial for Evermore. Now that food could stay fresher for longer, there were a lot of areas in the markets and peoples lives that were going to increase positively. 

With that thought done, she patted her hands and face clean with a rag she snagged from her back pocket and then took a hearty sip of the drink she had close to her work setup. 

“Whoa… this is amazing, Bracken!” Evan exclaimed. “You’re absolutely amazing!”

She laughed, a most grateful smile on her face.

“Thank you! I really appreciate that. I have a couple of people down from the Lumberyard that are gonna help me move it tomorrow, to a location where it’ll be easier access for the farms.”

She was just _ so cool _ and Evan couldn’t help but gaze up at her in awe. She’d managed to teach Evan somethings about what she does with ease, and he almost wanted to sit down and make something of his own on his own time when there wouldn’t be anyone around to see if he were possibly goof it up. But he was confident in her teaching that he would be able to do it too, and maybe if he listened to her and practiced really hard, he would be able to do all of this too one day.

With that, the two of them took a well earned break together as Bracken went over every mechanic the gadget had with Evan, and his listened as intently as possible with interest.

**xxx** **  
**

Most of everyone had fallen asleep. Roland was quietly snoozing away, curled up awkwardly with his head resting against his bag of supplies, alongside Leander, Tani, Bracken, and Batu. The fire they’d built was on its last legs, barely just flickers of light now, but it was enough for Evan to be able to see the area well enough should he need to navigate. He let his head lean back against his own things and stared up at the sky, fascinated by the many stars he could see.

Not too long ago, Evan did not feel this okay. He was far from it. He was upset, lost, and very unsure of where to take himself in his life next. He didn’t think he could rebuild a kingdom of his own, and surely did not think it would make it far enough to flourish into a full place with flourishing life and plenty of citizens even if he did. 

Now, he looked around briefly at the quietly sleeping people. They looked worn out from their travels, ready for the deserved sleep that they’d been longing for once the sun had gone down.

With that, Evan smiled to himself, content.

He’d never trade this family for anything else, because they were so much more than he could have ever asked for after one of the hardest things he’s ever been through.

**Author's Note:**

> theres too much sad papa roland and adopted son evan content we need something uplifting im sure ill get to it eventually
> 
> also @ everyone... you want that leander/reader pl e a se leave me a prompt in the comments im dyin scoob i have no idea what to write
> 
> (i wrote a bracken/reader that im still editing asdljsdgijldg should be up... hopefully either tonight or tomorrow tbh)


End file.
